Enigma of Combination
The Enigma of Combination is one of the artifacts of the Thirteen. Possessed by Nexus Prime, it is not only capable of fostering unity and cooperation of the minds of sentient creatures in its proximity, but also of bestowing one of the greatest abilities known to Cybertronians—that of combination. Not only can the Enigma merge any Cybertronians together into a new, combined form, it can also enhance the power and mental stability of existing combiners, or integrate new components into pre-existing combiner teams. History The Past In ancient times, Nexus Prime wielded the Enigma of Combination, which contained a fraction of his own combinational powers. Much like its owner, the Enigma frequently changed size and shape, making it impossible to predict or keep track of. In the ancient past of Cybertron, the Enigma was held by Nexus Prime, who used it to create the Ancient Headmasters, combining humanoid Transformers with beast-form Cybertronians from the ranks of his ally Onyx Prime. Sickened by these "abominations", the barbarian Galvatron waged a bloody crusade to slay all the Headmasters, then killed Nexus himself and took the Enigma to prevent its powers from being used to perpetuate what he saw as further perversions of Cybertronian purity. Later partnering with Nova Prime, who hoped to use the Enigma's power for his own ends, Galvatron lied and claimed that Nexus had fled the planet, taking the Enigma with him. However, their mutual ally Alpha Trion could detect the falsehood in Galvatron's words—none had ever known whether or not the Enigma was anything more than a concept, but Galvatron clearly knew it to be a physical object. Realizing that he had accidentally tipped his hand, Galvatron shot the Enigma into space to put it beyond anyone's reach, hoping that the Enigma would crash and burn up in some distant star. Eventually, seven million years ago, it crash-landed on Earth. According to Galvatron, Onyx only tolerated Nexus due to his ownership of the Enigma. Somehow Onyx knew that the Enigma had not been destroyed and was on Earth. Onyx sent G.B. Blackrock as a sleeper agent to find the Enigma and to summon him when he had found it. The Enigma landed in what would become Mesopotamia. In 4000 BCE, its light drew the attention of wandering tribes of humans, who huddled around it for warmth, little suspecting that through its powers, their thoughts and ideas would be "combined", leading to the founding on that site of Earth's first city, Uruk, and the birth of human civilization. Uruk's ruler, the ancient warrior Gilgamesh, built huge walls made of black rock around the city to protect it, from which his descendents would later take their family name. The "Blackrock" lineage passed the Enigma from generation to generation, building for themselves an immense fortune as the Enigma's powers led humankind to incredible technological developments such as the atomic bomb and the invention of the internet. The arrival of Transformers on Earth in the 21st Century led the current scion of the Blackrock line, Garrison, to deduce the Engima's Cybertronian origins. Transformers Frontier Optimus Prime learned of the Enigma's existence from Primus and told the other Autobots of it, but their conversation was spied upon by Prowl, who had his own plans for it. Around the same time, rogue Skywatch agent Kratt became aware of Blackrock's possession of the Enigma's, and though unaware of what it actually was, planned to steal it from the China facility of Blackrock's company, Onyx. Both Prowl and Steeljaw—now leader of the Decepticons—realized that Kratt likely had some information about the Enigma's whereabouts, and both attempted to hunt him down. Steeljaw managed to convince Olivia Holt to join forces with him to destroy the Enigma once and for all, but Prowl and the Constructicons, allied with Kratt, beat them to the punch, attacking the Onyx facility to recover the ancient talisman. As Devastator started tearing into the facility, Blackrock attempted to send the Enigma down a drop shaft but Devastator easily caught it. The Enigma demonstrated the ability to change size in order to be properly held by the giant. Before the Enigma's energies could have any effect on Devastator, Kratt made his big entrance and the sight of him reawakened Prowl and the Constructicons' shared hatred of Kratt, causing Devastator to go berserk and try to smash Kratt and everything in his way. The Decepticons eventually arrived at the facility and Olivia tried to reach out to Prowl and calm him down, only for Devastator to hurl the Enigma at her in a blind rage. During the chaotic battle, the Enigma was taken by Fracture who stole the Decepticon Shuttle and flew off to Cybertron to deliver the artifact to Starscream. Steeljaw grimly predicted that this will soon mean the end of Cybertronian society. Starscream used the artifact to bolster both Superion and Menasor, the latter of whom Swindle immediately set loose on Caminus later. Caminus detected the Enigma's energy within the rogue combiner and tried to warn his cityspeakers regarding what they were most likely dealing with, but the cityspeakers were unable to properly interpret his warnings. The Enigma was later used to reinvigorate the defeated Aerialbots after Devastator began attacking Caminus' Space Bridge. Realizing that Superion couldn't take on Devastator alone, Starscream used the Enigma on a group of bystanders, merging them into a new combiner, which called itself "Defensor". Now that the Constructicons were in custody, Starscream used the Enigma on Fracture and turned him into Devastator's new leg. Additionally, Fracture's devotion to his "Chosen One" meant that Devastator would obey Starscream's orders. Acting on Prowl's orders, Rattrap managed to steal the Enigma and deliver it to the captive Autobot, who used it on himself and some other Autobots to create Optimus Maximus. After all this chaos, the Council of Worlds had the Enigma put under secure guard on Cybertron. The Badgeless stood guard, along with an Autobot juuuust to be sure Starscream didn't pull a fast one. Soon into this agreement, Olivia stole it with the attempt to destroy it: she wanted to be damn sure Starscream didn't turn people into combiners against their will. The Camien Torchbearers, who saw destroying a Primal relic as blasphemy, intervened to help Windblade and became a combiner, Victorion, themselves! Eventually Windblade managed to convince Olivia to return the relic, so as to make sure Starscream had no excuse for military action. Blackrock implied to Kratt that via the Enigma he had extracted information regarding the Thirteen. According to Alpha Trion, the Enigma used the same source code as the Star Saber and the Triptych Mask. The Prime expressed his belief to Olivia and Agent that the relic, and other Artifacts of the Primes, were unbeatable by 'ordinary' Cybertronians.